It's a Ning Thing
With the explosion of social media popularity among kids and adults today, it makes sense to harness this love affair for educational purposes. It doesn’t take long, when teaching 8th graders, to realize that social connections are of prime importance. If these connections can be welcomed into the classroom vs. expelled, educators may find success among students who otherwise show little interest. This would be a huge win for all involved. Teachers love nothing better than to have students engaged in what is being taught. Not only this, but an engaged student is much more likely to actually learn something in the classroom and - maybe, just maybe - gain an interest that will help motivate them in the years ahead.
“How might this look in the classroom?” you ask. Great question! One way educators are tapping the social media well is through a Web2.0 application called “Ning”. Similar in many ways to Facebook, the Ning social media platform allows users to become members in order to participate in the member dialogue. This digital dialogue takes shape in many ways. Once a group has been set up, members can chat, blog, comment on posts, create discussions, send messages, share photos, and even videos. Privacy settings can also be initiated in order to keep group interaction limited to a targeted audience. Also, there are no charges involved in order to become a member or create a group. With these features, and even more that I didn’t mention, Ning is proving to be a very useful tool on the 21st century educator’s laptop.
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